Progress Destroyed: Rural Puerto Rico Faces Continual Trauma Of Flooding Rain
Blanca Matos' home, which backs up against a river, has flooded, and re-flooded, nearly every day this week. After each rain, she mops the house, cursing the river.
When it rains in Puerto Rico, it rains hard and it rains fast. And this week — three weeks after Hurricane Maria — it has rained a lot.
For portions of the island – especially in the mountains and in the valleys – that rain brings a continual trauma of mudslides and flooding. Even in San Juan, highway exits pool with a foot or more of water. In restaurants with cell service, the S.O.S alarms on phones ring out in a cacophony – warning of flash floods. But the capital city has fared comparatively well — it's the rural places that
